Charities SORP

Conference call - 28 November 2019

Meeting of the Charities SORP-making body

Present:

Joint Chairs:
Laura Anderson, Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)
Nigel Davies, Charity Commission England and Wales (CCEW)
Myles McKeown, Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI)

In attendance as observer(s):
Jelena Griscenko, Charities Regulator (CR)

Apologies:
Jenny Carter, Financial Reporting Council (FRC)

Purpose of the call:

To consider the applications for joining the SORP Committee and agree those who should be invited to interview. To also review the feedback from SORP Committee members on the draft minutes of the closing SORP Committee meeting on 12 September 2019.

Agreed actions from the meeting:

• Agreed to consider the applications by location to make the process manageable.
• Agreed to discuss any candidates that did not pass the criteria or were borderline ahead of those that passed. Also agreed that before shortlisting we confirm the available interview times by location.  
• With reference made to the shortlisting scores the panel used the agreed criteria for retiring members, individual applicants and applications by an organisation. To allow for scoring patterns by each panellist, each applicant was discussed, and a shortlist was agreed.
• Agreed to consider the two pools of applicants, retiring members (between a third and half of the new committee places) and new applicants separately. One retiring member submitted a borderline application with little detail but after discussion it was agreed to give credit for their known engagement in the retiring committee’s work and so decided to interview. All retiring members who applied were called for interview.
• Agreed an application by an organisation as an accounting practice could be considered but as an applicant by an individual; the applicant would pass as an individual but a check is to be made that this was accepted by the applicant.
• Also, in considering organisation applications, an applicant was agreed as a pass, but more clarification will be required at interview as to the facilities potentially offered by the organisation.
• Due to the strong technical field and the number of responses received by CCEW it was agreed that five auditors be offered interviews at other sites (amended to six on review) with the stronger passes receiving offers of interview. Of the 40 applications received, it was agreed in total across all four jurisdictions that 28 be invited to interview.
• Agreed to retain only a summary of the scores and list of shortlisted applicants once the process is completed. All other personal data of unsuccessful applicants to be deleted at the conclusion of the process.
• The host at each location to issue the invitations to interview (CCEW, CCNI, CR, OSCR).
• Reviewed the feedback on the minutes of 12 September 2019 with 7 responses received, 3 accepting the minutes as drafted, 1 with technical clarifications and 3 contesting items in the minutes. Agreed that the minutes are a summary rather than a recapitulation of detailed arguments as for balance then all points made would then have to be included leading to minutes of excessive detail and not reflective of the overall discussion.
• Of the contested minutes, 3 changes taken with the other items not taken either because they sought to rewrite the FRC contribution (already agreed with the FRC) or they were of undue length and were in a form of a lengthy argument for a particular view rather than a summary of the discussion. Agreed to publish (CCEW).